Endurance, Part 3

I still have more to write about the subject of endurance. I trust you can endure reading more about it. Last week we showed that the endurance that pleases God is endurance with patience. Godly endurance is more than just simply bearing hardship. It is bearing hardship with calmness and composure; it is being able to hold fast our faith and hope without rage or discontent. Those who endure with patience hang on in expectation of God keeping His promises. They endure even when their present circumstances bear down upon them with such pressure that they are tempted to throw away their faith and hope and to just look out for themselves. And while they are hanging on, they do not let the hardness of their present situation make them angry or bitter.

Now the Scripture gives us an excellent example of patient endurance in our father Abraham.

Hebrews 6:11 And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:

12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,

14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.

15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

Hebrews 6:14 is a quotation of Genesis 22:17, where God promised with an oath to multiply Abraham’s seed after Abraham had offered up Isaac on the mount. The seed that God was speaking of was the seed that would come through Isaac, Abraham’s promised son. Although Abraham had other children, the promises God made in Genesis 22 were realized in Isaac, who was called Abraham’s “only son” (Genesis 22:2; Hebrews 11:17). But this was not the first time that God had promised to multiply Abraham’s seed. God had promised to make Abraham’s seed as numerous “as the dust of the earth” back in Genesis 13:16, just after Abraham parted ways with his nephew Lot. This promise was made to Abraham before he even had a child. Now in Genesis 22:17 God repeats the promise, but this time He confirms it with an oath.

Consider what God promised to Abraham when He promised to multiply his seed.

Multiply – To cause to become much, many, or more; to make many or manifold; to augment the number, amount or quantity of.

God promised to increase the number of Abraham’s seed. God promised Abraham more than one offspring, which is all Abraham had when God made this promise in Genesis 22:17.

At the time when Abraham offered up Isaac, Isaac had no children. Isaac was not even married at this time. Isaac did not marry until he was 40 years old (Genesis 25:20). In fact, when Abraham offered up Isaac, Isaac was still a lad (Genesis 22:5, 12). A lad is a boy or a youth. Isaac was not yet a fully matured man when he was offered up. The Hebrew word rendered lad in Genesis 22 is applied to boys from the age of infancy to adolescence. Adolescence was originally considered as the time of youth from age 14 to 25 in males. So Abraham had not yet seen his seed multiplied, when God made this promise to Him in Genesis 22:17.

Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. When Isaac had his sons, Jacob and Esau, Isaac was 60 years old (Genesis 25:26), which would have made Abraham 160 years old when he had these grandsons. It was at this time that Abraham saw his seed being multiplied. Consider! God promised with an oath to multiply Abraham’s seed when Isaac was but a lad. Now Isaac was 60 years old when he had his twin sons. It was at least 35 years or more that Abraham had to wait before he saw the fulfillment of God’s sworn promise to multiply his seed. So it was after Abraham patiently endured that he obtained the promise. And add to this that God had promised to multiply Abraham’s seed long before Isaac was even born. It was well in excess of 60 years that Abraham had to hold out waiting for God to fulfill His promise. All this time Abraham believed that God would keep that promise. It must have been hard for Abraham to keep believing and hoping during this long time because the Scripture says he endured. Recall that to endure is to bear continuous hardship without giving up. Abraham’s example matches the definition of patience that we saw last week, which is the calm abiding of the issue of time.

Now Paul instructs believers to be followers of this example of faith and patience that we see in Abraham. I have encountered people who will whine about having to endure a hardship for a few months. Some cannot even endure a difficulty for a few weeks. How pitiful! The example we are called to follow is of a man who waited over 60 years for something God had promised him.

Paul instructs us to be “followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Paul commended the Thessalonians for their “patience and faith” in all the persecutions and tribulations they endured. Observe that faith is linked with patience. They go together. The key to greater patience and thus to greater endurance is faith. The more we believe what God tells us, the more we will be able to calmly abide the issue of time. If we are confident that God will do as He has promised, we will be better able to endure whatever hardness comes upon us. Knowing that God will come through for us in the final issue will sustain us through the hardness. Faith was what enabled Abraham to patiently endure.

Romans 4:18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.

19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:

20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;

21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

And so if you are having a problem patiently enduring hardness, check your faith. Follow the example of the apostles of our Lord and pray the same simple prayer that they prayed.

Luke 17:5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

And then attend faithfully to the reading, meditation, and hearing of the word of God. God has ordained His word as the means for the increase of faith. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). And Paul stated that his ministry was “for your furtherance and joy of faith” (Philippians 1:25). So when you are reading Paul’s epistles or hearing them expounded, you are doing something designed to further your faith. The more your faith is furthered or advanced, the more patience you will have. You will develop a greater ability to endure hardness with calmness and composure. It is amazing how much a Bible passage can calm you down and enable you to endure when you believe that passage. With greater faith, you will be better able to calmly abide the issue of time. I conclude this week’s meditation with this exhortation:

Hebrews 10:35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.